Category Archives: Blog
September 12th – Colorado Springs
This morning I had the strange and welcome surprise of waking up in a real bed again. When I got over that, I had another pleasant realization. Breakfast would be waiting for me out in the lobby! That got me out of bed with an added bit of excitement for the day. I enjoyed eggs, buscuits and gravy, sausage, a waffle, and a glass of milk. When I finished eating, I made up another waffle to take on the road (shhh, don’t tell anyone!).
I made full use of my hotel room by writing at the desk until ten minutes before the 11 A.M. checkout time. Before incurring a fine for breaking the deadline, I turned in my key and filled up my large mug with ice and coffee. I walked out to my car and made sure everything was ready for today’s drive. Yesterday I noticed a slow leak in my left front tire, so I made sure to pump air into it before driving both yesterday and today. Thankfully, my dad sent a handy little electric air pump along with me. I brought it along so that I could leave my basketball deflated while crossing the mountains and then reinflate it when I needed it. Now it’s turned out to be very useful for my tires. As always, my dad thought through the “what ifs” and sent me off well prepared.
I started listening to a new book on my drive. It’s called Assassin’s Fate. This is the last book in a series I’ve enjoyed for several years. Way back in book one, the main character was an illegitimate little prince in a faraway fantasy world of political intrigue, invading armies, and hereditary magic. He was trained to be an assassin and alse developed two kinds of magic – the one that was a birthright of his bloodline and another that was condemned by society. Through the series, he developed into a young man and lived a life full of love, war, pain, and loss. In Assassin’s Fate, he is now an old man, but he is driven into one more adventure by the kidnapping of his daughter. The book follows him to the end of this adventure and ties up the threads of his nine-book saga.
After listening to this book for awhile, I took a break to call my friend in New Mexico and then listened to the radio for awhile. I was surprised to find that northern Colorado has five country music stations. I thought I’d need to go a little more southeast before hearing so much country.
Around four in the afternoon, I arrived in Colorado Springs and drove up to “The Mansion.” That’s my name for the home I’ll be staying in for the next week. The friends I’ll be staying with (Lou and Valli) have been friends with my parents for longer than I’ve been around. My dad owned a duplex with them for several years. Right now they’re splitting time between California and Colorado, and eventually, they plan to stay in Colorado. Their son, Louis, is three months older than I am. We sometimes say that we have been friends since before we were born. He is still in California right now, but he’s going to fly out on Wednesday and visit for a few days.
In my mind, a mansion is a large house that is more than one story tall and has a cool gate on the pathway leading to the front door. This place passes the test. There is also a great view of the Cascade Mountains from the back patio and a workshop/garage in the large backyard. Upstairs, my favorite thing was the enormous kitchen. It has two ovens and plenty of room for multiple people to cook at the same time. Downstairs is a huge sitting room with a sectional couch that can fit at least nine people.
As my hosts showed me around, we visited and discussed plans for the week. Before arriving, I had let them know that I would be available to help out with any projects they could think of. I found out that they did indeed have something for me to do. Lou showed me a slope in the backyard that leads down to their workshop. It is a somewhat steep slope and was only broken up by a few levels of block steps that weren’t helping out very much. Our job will be to make a real set of steps. We’d have to pull all the cement blocks out, remove the sod, cut into the slope to make steps, put the blocks back, and level the grass in between the steps.
The job sounded like fun to me. I was all settled in and had nothing else to do, so we decided to start right away. We began by pulling out the blocks. That didn’t take long. As we moved onto cutting and removing sod, I realized that I needed to document this project – at least the beginning and end of it. Here is a picture of the slope with only the cement blocks pulled out.
When it started to get dark outside, we cleaned up the tools and went inside for dinner. We talked more about the week ahead, and Lou told several stories of the summers between college semesters when he worked in a sugar beet factory. After dinner, there was a relaxing hot tub bath waiting to reward us for the evening of work. And finally, another real bed!
September 11th – A Real Bed To Sleep In
I woke up to a colorful Wyoming sunrise – and lazily resented the bright light streaming through the windshield into my face.
No, I am not a morning person. When I go to bed, I’m excited about the next day. When I wake up, I just want to stay in the comfort of my sleeping bag. Last night, I saw the sun setting in the west and thought, “Oh, I’ll park facing the opposite way, so that I can have a clear view of the sun as it rises in the east.” This morning, I bemoaned the sun’s bothersome presence because it disturbed my sleep.
But I did get up and went about my morning tasks. Well, first I sat up in my sleeping bag, reached into my dry foods box, and pulled out the last of five plums that I had purchased in West Yellowstone. I stayed there, enjoying the fruit and scolding the warm sun for waking me, then finally got up for real.
I knew my destination today – Laramie, Wyoming. I would treat myself to a night at a hotel so that I could shower and relax. Before leaving my spot on the canyon rim, I made a reservation at the Laramie Quality Inn. Then, I drove down the dirt road back to the highway and took this picture of the terrifying spire I had driven out to see last night.
The drive to Laramie went quickly. I listened to my current audiobook, The Life of Greece, which is about exactly what the title says it’s about. It traces the history of Greece through the numerous invasions, rulers, and societal changes that it went through.
When I arrived in Laramie, I checked into my hotel and settled in. My first order of business was to shower off all the dirt I had accumulated in Wyoming. There was Yellowstone dirt and Grand Teton dirt and even a little bit of dirt that didn’t have a brand name. I made sure to leave it all behind – I didn’t want to be guilty of stealing dirt.
As I rested in my comfortable bed, all nice and clean, I decided I wanted some pizza. It had been awhile since I’d had anything other than my strange sandwich inventions. So I looked at Yelp reviews to find out if there were any good local pizza shops. There weren’t, so I settled on Dominoes. I ordered online – and what an experience that was! It was like shopping on Amazon. They had stock photos of what my pizza would look like with each ingredient choice, and once I ordered there was a meter that told me what stage my pizza was at. It showed that the order placed was placed and updated when the pizza moved to the next station – prep, bake, quality check, and pickup rack.
I picked up my pizza and ate most of it. The two that were left over went into my fridge (I’m at a hotel, I have a refrigerator!) for lunch tomorrow. Then I did a little bit of writing and headed to the spa. This time I was the only occupant, so I had both a more peaceful and less interesting soak than I’d had at the West Yellowstone KOA.
The relaxing water almost put me to sleep, and falling into my bed is just about to put me over the edge. Goodnight!
September 10th – Don’t Fall!
This morning I let myself sleep in after the long day of hiking. When I finally got out of my car, I was treated to a rainbow. It spanned the whole sky in front of me, enclosing the Teton mountain range. Sadly, I did not see any leprechauns prowling around, so I figured that the gold at the base of this rainbow must have already been taken.
After admiring the rainbow, I started driving. Today I was in search of the Internet and a quiet place to sit. I wanted to update my blog and find a place to stay on my way to Colorado Springs.
On my way south, I drove through Jackson, Wyoming, and found myself back in the middle of a familiar phenomenon – a traffic jam. This was a bustling tourist town and I must have hit it at rush hour. There were several coffee shops I could have stopped there, but I wanted to get further along my way than that, so I kept driving. After Jackson, I felt like I drove forever without seeing another car. The few tiny towns I passed through had populations around two hundred people. My phone had no cell service for over a hundred miles.
Eventually, I happened to look down at my gas gauge. Oops. I had an empty tank. I’d driven 440 miles so far and that’s at least 50 more than I have been used to letting it go. There was still nothing within sight and no data connection on my phone. No way to go but forward! I’m not generally a nervous person, but I started to become one at this moment. I decided that was silly though. Being nervous could increase my blood pressure, but not refill the gas tank. I was driving, and that was the only helpful thing I could do.
I got to 460 miles. Those nerves came back and were very unhelpful again. Finally, I entered the limits of Rock Springs, Wyoming. This was a real city, one with people and stores and traffic. I looked for the closest gas station found an Exxon to fuel up at. As I waited to turn left into the gas station, I wondered if my tank would last through the light. It did, and the tank only took twenty-five gallons, which meant that there had been three gallons left. I could have gone fifty more miles!
After getting gas, I went to a McDonalds – again. It’s becoming a familiar place for me on this trip. I did some writing there, though the slow internet made uploading the two posts I finished take forever. When it was time to move on, I found a campsite that was only about twenty minutes away.
The directions to the campsite took me up to my new favorite road. It carried me along the ridges of the canyon formations that surround Rock Springs. I passed the pull-off for the campsite I was looking for and kept exploring the road.
I drove to one end of the road and found a cool spire that projected out of the formation. There was a road that led out to it, so I figured I was obviously supposed to drive out on it. The drive out went well. Then I got out of the car and realized how high this ledge was off the ground, and what a relatively narrow space I had to turn around. It was probably twenty-five feet wide, and that would be lots of room – if my car wasn’t eighteen feet long. I’d have to make a really tight turn and be careful not to drive too far forward. I didn’t want to go plummeting to the valley floor. On the bright side (the very bright side), the sunset was gorgeous from that spot.
I could back up along the way that I had come, but I was not that confident that I could back up in a straight line for a hundred yards. I started to understand what cats feel like when they’ve climbed up a tree and can’t muster the nerve to come back down.
Turning around seemed to be the safest bet. I started the turn and went forward about a foot. Then I turned off the engine and walked around my car to see exactly how far I could drive safely in each direction. It looked like I had about three feet on each side. Past that, the ground sloped down steeply and disappeared. So I got back in my car and backed up two feet. Then went forward two feet. Again, I got out, checked, and got back in. Whew. Back up, go forward. Last time now, back up, and there we go… forward for the last time, leaving the precarious ledge behind.
That last episode had been enough adventure for one night, so I returned to the campsite I found and parked – leaving plenty of room between me and the edge of the canyon. I got out to stretch and play my guitar, then climbed into my cozy bed in the back and went to sleep.
September 9th – Buck Mountain
THE GRAND HIKING PLAN
– Bring a lot of food and water
– Take some pictures
– Listen to an audiobook
– Walk a long, long way
This was my strategy as I woke up and drove back to the Teton National Forest this morning. I suppose it would be more accurate to call it an outline. A very rough outline. Looking back, it probably could have been improved if I had figured out specific details (especially about where I was walking). But if I took the time to work all of that out, maybe I would have chickened out and not gone on the hike. And then I would have missed my favorite adventure of this trip so far. Here’s the story of how it turned out.
I did bring a lot of food. Two ham and cheese bagelwiches, two cliff bars, two servings of protein powder, one snack-sized bag of trail mix, half a bag of baby carrots, and five bottles of water. Yes, I put all of that in my backpack. It was heavy and made me sweat disgustingly (although that may have happened even if I hadn’t been wearing the backpack). It was well worth it all though when I was able to satisfy my hunger and thirst with the treasures I carried.
I took some pictures. Quite a few pictures – over a hundred, for the second day in a row. Yesterday it was easy to sort through the photos. Some were interesting and most weren’t. The interesting ones went into my post for the day and the others will be forgotten. Today it’s harder. The mountains, trees, animals, and clouds were incredible from every angle. A hundred pictures are too many to post though, so I picked my favorite-favorites and had to leave the rest (my just-normal-favorites) behind on my SD card.
I listened to an audiobook. I borrowed A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain from the online library I use. I started it on my drive to the trailhead and finished it about three-quarters of the way through my hike. Eventually, I’ll write my thoughts about it on the “Books” page that is linked on the sidebar of this site. There’s already more than enough to write about today without adding in a book summary.
I did walk a long, long way – and I did a lot more climbing than I expected to. Last night, I decided to start my hike at the Taggart Lake Trailhead and see how far I could go. It looked like the trail went in a big circle around the Teton Range. I thought it would be cool to see the mountains from the every angle, and that’s what I expected to do. It turned out that the trail goes over the top of the mountains, not around, and that the full loop is at least a forty-mile trip. By the time I figured that out, I was already over six miles into the hike and I really didn’t want to turn back. I decided to keep going until prudence absolutely insisted that I turn back. Before I talk about that though, I should probably go back to the beginning.
The hike started out well. After walking for a solitary forty-five minutes, I met a friendly squirrel – at least I think he was a squirrel. Maybe Sam, the official wildlife expert on this site, can double check that for me. Anyway, the squirrel (as I will call him for now) seemed quite excited to see me with my camera and he posed perfectly for a picture. I think he was embarrassed after I took it though because he started to hide his face behind the branch he was sitting on.
The path was well kept for the most part. There were a few places though where I had to push my way through fresh undergrowth that hadn’t yet been trimmed back.
The grass and vegetation stayed with me for the first three miles. Then I was moved onto a hardpacked dirt path which led in a long, gradual slope to this view of Phelps Lake. From here the trail went into downhill switchbacks. I enjoyed the easy walk down and I hoped I wouldn’t have to walk back up.
The hardpacked dirt continued and I started to ascend again. I got a great side view of the mountain range.
At this point, I started to figure out that I was headed right toward the middle of the mountains, not the back. The trail began to climb more steeply and stones appeared in the pathway, sometimes as steps and sometimes only managing to get in the way. A series of tiny waterfalls ran roughly parallel to the trail and sometimes came close enough for me to walk onto them.
Eventually the I reached a clear pool of water that fed the waterfalls. Once I passed that, I entered a dense forest that ushered me to the base of what turned out to be a four-mile path of endless switchbacks. This was by far the worst part of the hike. So far, I had gone about ten miles in a little over three hours. This four-mile stretch took another three hours all by itself.
In the picture on the left, you can see the narrow path that led upward. If you look carefully at the picture on the right, you’ll see the flowers and grass in the foreground with everything else in the background. The only thing in between was a steep slope with some shrubbery growing on it. I didn’t think that falling off the side of the path would be very fun so I did my best to avoid it.
Those switchbacks seemed to last forever. I did my best to keep moving up, then I’d rest for a few minutes. I felt wimpy when I needed to rest every hundred steps, but I knew I was still making progress. At last, I made it. Not to the top, but to a ridge that was almost flat. I looked behind me and saw this beautiful view.
I kept going up, but I knew it was getting too late in the day for me to even hope that I could finish the loop. I knew that it would be beyond stupid to try. I would most likely get stuck on the peak of a mountain all night in thirty-degree weather and then I’d be discovered by a mother bear who would think I was a popsicle and carry me away to her den where she would share me with her hungry cubs.
Before giving in and taking the wise course back down the mountain, I went a little further up the trail to see what I would miss when I turned around. I saw the peak of Buck Mountain, about a thousand feet higher up. I climbed toward it until the switchbacks started again. Then I took a couple more pictures of the heavenly mountain panorama I had walked so far to see and started back down the mountain.
The trip down didn’t seem too long at first. The switchbacks only took an hour and a half to get through. And on my way down, I was cheered on by another friendly rodent. This looks like a chipmunk to me, but I’ll need to call on Sam again before I know for sure.
The reality of this hike set in on me as I made my way back through the forest and down the rocky steps next to the waterfalls. Getting to the top of the mountain had been difficult. But now I had to go back and retrace every step I had taken. It was much easier going down, but by this point, I had walked twenty miles already today.
I told myself that when I arrived back at Phelps Lake, I would take a break and enjoy the last bagelwich that I had been saving to eat sometime during the return trip. I made it back to the lake and happily stretched out on the rocks and roots shown in the picture below and to the left. I had a clear view of the lake from here, similar to the picture I took as I passed Phelps lake on my way up the mountain.
From my cozy perch, I watched the sun make its way toward the horizon. I didn’t want to be stuck out in the dark forest alone, so I got back on my tired legs and continued my return trip.
To take my mind off of my tired legs, I decided to knock out the two hundred pushups I still needed to do in Wyoming. I stopped every ten minutes over the next several miles, to do a set of twenty pushups, then got up and started walking again.
The sun went down while I was still walking and when it eventually got dark, I used my phone’s flashlight to make sure I stayed on the path. Soon after dark, I reached the Taggart Lake Trailhead. I still had to walk a quarter mile to the parking lot, and I managed to finish off the long walk with my new trademarked move – wandering around in circles while trying to figure out which way to go.
I did eventually get myself pointed the right way and made it safely to my car around 9:30 PM. I climbed stiffly into my car and checked my watch to see how many miles I had put on my feet today. It showed twenty-nine point seven miles. I really wished that I could have hit thirty, but my legs wanted nothing to do with me after what I had already put them through.
I drove back to my campsite and walked around in circles some more as I got myself ready for bed. When I lay down in my sleeping bag, my watch told me I hit exactly thirty miles for the day. That was a great way to go to sleep.
September 8th – Jenny Lake
This was a simple day. I woke up intending to go on a “writing hike.” I was going to explore some trails at Jenny Lake (the largest of several small lakes in the area) and take several breaks along the way to write. I ended up with a relaxed morning, a late start, and a long hike with only a little writing included.
I started hiking with the best intentions and even stopped once to compose a brilliant masterpiece. At this stop, I found a new chair to get acquainted with. This one was an ergonomically shaped tree trunk with a smooth stone placed right below it. From this seat, I could enjoy the view of the mountains and hear the gentle splash of water as the waves came and went.
When I finished the writing that I wanted to do at that point, I got up and kept walking. I decided to follow the path I was on as it curved around Jenny Lake. The route looked fun to me, and I thought it would be good to make this a long walk so that I would have more time to write.
I almost took a second writing break, but then I decided I wasn’t ready yet – I wanted to get further down the trail. I kept telling myself I wanted to walk just a little bit further until I reached the halfway point of the loop I had chosen to walk. At that point, I realized that I was more than five miles into the walk and I still had at least five miles to go – and the smokey haze in the sky had been joined by clouds that looked about ready to burst.
So much for writing. I just kept walking and hoped that the rain would hold off till I made it back to my car. After two light showers, the rain took pity on me and went away. The clouds even dissipated as I neared the end of my hike and left the sky a little clearer than it was before.
The hike turned out to be a lot of fun – way more fun than I expected. I took more than a hundred pictures and walked eleven miles. It’s inspired me to do more hiking. I think I may wake up early and try a longer path tomorrow.
September 7th – Yellowstone Park
It’s time for an adventure! Let’s make sure Matthew doesn’t forget anything that he needs to do. Shower, figure out driving directions, check out of the KOA. Oh, and don’t forget gas! Food too – don’t let Matthew starve in Yellowstone. Hey, Matthew! I said don’t forget to buy gas and food!
Sadly, there was no voice reminding me of these things. I took care of most of the important things… except the most important ones. I ended up driving half an hour into the park before I realized that my car and my body were going to need fuel in the very near future. Later in the day, I learned that I could have taken care of these needs inside the park, but at the time I didn’t know that. I drove back to the city of West Yellowstone.
I found a cute little store in town and stocked up on meat, cheese, bagels, and carrots. While I was waiting at the deli case, I struck up a conversation with a middle-aged couple who were driving through on their way home from Oregon, where they had dropped their child off at college. They wished me luck on my tour of the country.
As I drove back into Yellowstone, I was grateful again that my parents had let me use their national parks pass. They got the pass when they visited Yellowstone back in May, and sent it along with me so that I could save some money on my trip. It has been great! I got into the Olympic National Park in Washington twice, and now I’ve gotten into Yellowstone twice.
While driving, I finished listening to another audiobook. This one is Michael O’Halloran, by Gene Stratton-Porter. It is the fictional story of a young boy (Michael) growing up New York. Michael’s mother died, leaving him alone in the huge city. Before she died though, she instilled principles of good character and hard work in him. The story follows his life and shows how these principles carry him through all his adventures, from selling newspapers to taking care of a crippled girl so that she does not have to go to the orphan’s home. He even helps to bring joy and eventual healing to several unhappy and contentious families. I’ve read several books by this author now and enjoyed them all. They are refreshingly full of virtue. I have found that the stories do seem too good to be true – as in this case, where one boy does so much with only a willing mind and cheerful face – but I think that this over-exaggeration of the power of goodness helps counterbalance the over-exaggeration of hopelessness that we are flooded with in daily life.
Yellowstone was gorgeous. The smoke had stuck with me all the way through Idaho and now into Wyoming, but it stayed in the background while I was touring the park. 
I did most of my exploring by driving around. There are paths and hikes in some spots, but nothing really caught my interest. I did stop at Firehole Fall (along with lots of other tourists) to take pictures.
For lunch, I pulled out some of the food that I had at first forgotten to bring with me. I made a bagelwich out of ham, Havarti cheese, and a blueberry bagel. This is my new favorite meal – it tops the tuna bagelwich by just a little margin.
While eating my sandwich, I sat at the Old Faithful General Store. A couple who looked to be in their sixties sat down next to me and we talked for awhile. They live an hour south of Yellowstone and have visited many times over the thirty years they’ve been there. The man talked about a horrible fire that burned through over a third of Yellowstone Park in 1988. He, like my friends in Oregon, talked about the problems that occur when forest care does not include clear-cutting and occasional controlled fires to clear out the fallen leaves and undergrowth.
Next, I went into the Old Faithful Inn. My parents enjoyed this a lot when they visited, and I found it quite beautiful also. I sat on the second level of the giant wooden hotel and listened to a live violinist perform for about twenty minutes.
Finally, I drove to Old Faithful itself. I arrived at a good time and only had to wait twenty minutes for the geyser to do its thing. During the wait time, one of my fellow spectators decided to bring a little humor to the afternoon. He spent five minutes cajoling the crowd to do the wave, as people do at sporting events.
After watching the geyser go off, I finished up my drive for the day. There is a road that leads in a big circle through Yellowstone Park and another circle above that. I only drove along the southwest quarter of the bottom circle, but I was happy with what I got to see. From the circle, I continued south and entered Teton National Park. I drove a little further and got to Bridger Teton National Park, and arrived at the campsite I had found online. This time it was not dark, the campsite was really there – right where it was supposed to be, and I settled in for a peaceful night of sleep. And that’s the end of today!
September 6th – A Blessing of Showers
My drive today was a short one – only two hours. I made it to the West Yellowstone KOA before noon, checked in, and spent the rest of the day dawdling around my camping area. I picked one of the four simple tent camping plots available.
Today I finished reading a book that I started while I was camping at the Hoh River. It’s called In Conquest Born and was written by C.S. Friedman. This was first Friedman’s first published work and she has never become a super successful author, so it’s not an amazing read. I enjoyed it though. It is a Sci-Fi novel that tells the story of two very different galactic empires that exist in perpetual war. The Azean Empire tries to build its power by genetically engineering diseases and defects out of its race. Science, experimentation, and bureaucracy drive the people and the military. The Braxin Empire is run by an aristocracy of “purebloods” who are physically and mentally superior to the rest of their race. They use fear and misinformation to keep their empire in line. The story follows an Azean with psychic powers as she overcomes inhibiting circumstances to become the most powerful general in her empire’s fleet, and a Braxin who violates many customs of his proud race as he gathers power to himself and eventually becomes Emperor. These two powerfully driven individuals meet early in their pursuit of power and become consumed with personal vendettas to defeat the other and end the war between the empires forever, with the extinction of the enemy race.
As I said, this was not the best book ever written, but it did have me on the edge of my seat. After I started it last Saturday, I have been keeping myself busy with driving, sleeping, and doing the small chores that need to be done every day. Today I finally had a chance to sit down and enjoy the book.
Another change I appreciated was the availability of a shower. It has been awhile since I left Seattle – my last civilized stop. I’m learning to be grateful for “small” things like showers!
In the afternoon I took a picture of the back of my car so that y’all can see how wonderfully comfortable it is.
In the evening, I went to the pool – the pool building, to be more I accurate. I stayed in the hot tub the whole time. That gave me the opportunity to talk to other travelers.
I met a young couple who live in Eastern Washington. I asked them about their work at a YMCA children’s camp and about their experiences at Yellowstone. They told me to be prepared for huge crowds of people in the park.
We were joined by a couple who are on vacation from the Netherlands, taking a break from their jobs as an accountant and a school teacher. A few minutes later, another couple joined the party. They were from Michigan. They had just dropped off their youngest child at college and were celebrating their new time alone together. They talked with the couple from the Netherlands about football – both couples are diehard fans. I tuned out for awhile and closed my eyes.
I only got to keep my eyes closed for a few seconds before I began being talked to by a gregarious young homeschooled girl. She told me that she was excited to be entering the sixth grade but wanted her mom to put her back in normal school so that she could see her friends again.
Finally, a group of six people entered the building and made their way toward us. I knew I was a prune from sitting in the water for so long and I had no wish to be turned into prune juice by having six people sit down on my lap. I took the opportunity to head back to my car and get ready for bed.
That’s about all the interesting stuff that happened today. Tomorrow I will start exploring Yellowstone!
September 5th – Still on the Road
I woke up ready to keep driving. Sleeping at a rest stop does that, I suppose. It’s not a destination or even a stopping place really. It’s just a pause. I slept in my front seat, woke up and walked around for two minutes, then got back in my seat and started driving again.
Yesterday I ended up going a lot farther than I intended. I made it about two-thirds of the way down Idaho and I only needed to get a little further south – to Boise – before I started going east again. I decided to make Boise my morning destination. I wanted to stop in a big city where I could find a Starbucks and finish the planning that I started yesterday.
I did find a Starbucks. While drinking an iced coffee, I reassessed my stopping points on the way to Yellowstone. I found a rest stop for tonight and made a reservation at the West Yellowstone KOA for tomorrow night. At the KOA, I will enjoy the pool, the showers, and the return to civilization.
With that figured out, I got back on the road and drove east, across Idaho. Driving on the state highways, I saw a lot of fields (which appeared to be predominantly used for growing hay). I felt almost like I was at sea. With a few color alterations, the rolling fields and hovering smoke would have looked exactly like endless waves and billowing fog.
Unlike the ocean, the fields I drove through were interrupted by other features of geography and civilization I drove through lots of little towns where traffic slowed to meet the 25 MPH speed limits. The highways I took also paralleled several rivers. My favorite was the Payette River. I pulled off once to take pictures of it and every time I turned around a bend in the road, I wanted to stop again and take more. I resisted the urge. I’ve had that problem many times so far in this trip. I wish I could stop to take every bit of the scenery I drive through, but there is just too much.
I pulled off for the night at a rest stop near Idaho Falls. Tomorrow I’ll start heading north to reach Yellowstone. This is the second rest stop that I have used and I am learning to be grateful for them. They have free overnight parking, clean bathrooms, shade trees, and short walking paths. All wonderful things to find on a road trip!
I had this rest stop almost to myself (there was only one other car in the parking lot). I got out and stretched, then did my two hundred pushups for Idaho. Now I’ve got four states done! California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Only thirty-one states left.
After exercising, I played my guitar for awhile and then called home. It was good to talk to my family. My mom asked about my sleeping arrangements. I told her I had just been sleeping in the driver’s seat of the car. She recommended that I move things around in the back of the car so that I could stretch out and sleep there. I liked that idea. It took a bit of reorganizing, but I got it to work. I am very thankful for the suggestion! It’s wonderful to be sleeping in an almost real bed again.
September 4th – Coffee, Shopping, and a Family of Flies
I drove a lot yesterday. I guess I made it across Washington in one day – from the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula all the way to the tip of Idaho. Then I drive some more trying to figure out if I was at the right campsite.
By the time I parked and calmed down and got into bed it was almost 2 A.M, so I decided not to worry about waking up early this morning. I slept in until 10 A.M. and then took my time getting going. I did find out that I had indeed wasted time driving in circles last night – this was (in the daylight) obviously the campsite I found online.
Once I was awake and mostly functional, I decided to find a Starbucks in Couer d’Alene and spend the morning reorienting myself. Last week was full of busyness and fun, but I didn’t make much time to update my blog or plan for this week.
I started out by reviewing my week in Washington. I finished up my blog entries and tried to upload them. I ended up spending several hours trying. At this Starbucks the coffee was good but the Internet was unbelievably slow. Updating my website felt like trying to drink a Java Chip Frappuccino with a stir straw.
In frustration, I moved onto my next problem. How would I get to Yellowstone? I had planned to drive straight east, through Montana, then turn south and drop into the north entrance of the park. The forty-two fires currently burning in Montana made me hesitant to continue that way. Already, in the tip of Idaho, I could see, smell, and feel the smoke. I didn’t want to drive into more, and I didn’t look forward to getting stuck on a highway waiting for a fire to be put out.
I called home and conferred with my dad. He advised me to take the much longer route, south on several Idaho state highways, to arrive at Yellowstone’s west entrance. I decided that was the way I would go.
I had to backtrack about sixty miles, across the state border again to Spokane, Washington. That gave me a chance to look for a sporting goods store where I could purchase a new cooler. I had brought a cooler with me – or at least I thought I had. It turned out to be rather bad at keeping things cool (which is, I believe, the primary task of a cooler). Since I planned to spend a few days away from civilization while in Yellowstone, I knew I’d need to make an upgrade to keep my food fresh.
I found a Sportsman’s Warehouse in Spokane. After shopping around, I found a good cooler – an electric Coleman that I read good things about online. Amazon sold the same item a bit cheaper, but since I don’t have a real home address at the moment, buying things on Amazon wasn’t an available option.
Because of all my scrabbling around in the city, I got a late start on my drive for the day. It was about 4 P.M. when I was finally ready to leave. Since I did start out so late, I picked out a campsite not far from Washington’s southeast border. If I could just drive through Washington and a little bit of Idaho, I’d call it a day.
On the first part of my drive, I saw a cool bridge and waterfront. But all the way through both Washington and Idaho, the smoke stuck with me and turned the sun into a fiery ball of diffuse orange and red.
